Diane von Furstenberg Resort 2015: A Sunny Past, A Brighter Future

“You have to cater to who goes to St. Barth’s, who goes to Aspen, and who stays home,”

Diane von Furstenberg explained her 2015 resort collection, a mix of looks chosen for locals the modern woman visits: from cabanas to clubs, poolside’s and penthouses. For the Collection’s celebratory tone, no variety needed; any leisure is welcome leisure.

With that, von Furstenberg tied together looks, spanning mini-party dresses to black trousers and a matching blazer over a white blouse, with design aesthetics of ‘pure joy.’ A poppy print von Furstenberg’s creative director, Michael Hertz, resurrected from the brand’s archives was a main contributor, dotting the collection with a vivid palette expressing the extremeness and warmth of reds and the glory and stature of purples. The warm-cool color contrast stimulates the eye to add excitement, and a nod to the brand’s rise-to-fame in the seventies weaves in the anticipatory happiness experienced when a summit is in-view.
Fittingly, a retro silhouette carried the collection, seen in figure-hugging crew-necks tucked into high-waist flares, emphasized cuffs, and long-lined blazer coats.

The contributions to the seventies-style Furstenberg herself cultivated were also present in the looks. Her iconic-jersey wrap dresses were considered a symbolic celebration of women’s liberation at the time, a trend away from the known without loosing all recognizable details. “It’s actually a very traditional form of clothing” von Furstenburg once told The Independent in 2008, “It’s like a toga, it’s like a kimono without buttons, without a zipper. What made my wrap dress different is that they were made of jersey and sculpted the body.” On the same note, von Furstenberg showed her traditional (take the red three-quarter sleeve wrap with blue and black flora) alongside the new (a wrap dress with an enlarged, blue floral, cut diagonally so it could be worn like a knit wrap-cardigan with a cutaway hem). Also new was a structured take on her go-to-jersey, woven thicker in items like matching short suits, to add texture to her sleek-and-simple lines.

Von Furstenberg used the image of ” a militant woman waving a flag of happiness and joy,” as a base to draw her collection’s celebration from. Following, she splashed an abstract flag-print on her later looks. Developed in a more-muddy palette, the print wraps perfectly back into the seventies theme. Though while the seventies were undoubtedly a significant time for the brand, von Furstenberg expects the future to be just as bright–sunny enough to don a pair of shades. A group of Google staffers were the solution, inviting everyone at the presentation a chance to try on a pair of Google glass, unveiling the line of prescription and sunglass styles von Furstenberg designed.

Von Furstenberg may be an icon in the past, but who is to say she can’t be one in the future as well? See that summit– it is still in-reach.